1883 



GLEAJSriNGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



7t3 



required so much work ; for to carry out the plan, the 

 three frames placed in the front part of the hive 

 were to be taken out at the end of one week, and plac- 

 ed immediately behind the wide frames, and three 

 other frames of hatching brood placed la front with 

 the queen. At the end of another week these frames 

 in turn were to be taken out and placed next the wide 

 frames of sections, and the remaining 3 frames 

 placed in front. Thus it will be seen that the queen 

 had the same laying room she would have had in a 

 whole hive of 9 frames; for with the next change 

 she would have the 3 frames the had laid in 3 weeks 

 before; and as all the bees would hatch out in order 

 as she laid the eggs three weeks previously, she 

 could fill three frames solid with brood every week, 

 instead of scattering it among 9 frames. As the 

 honey-harvest advanced, more wide frames of sec- 

 tions were to be inserted as the bees gained in 

 strength, by moving the 6 frames of brood back, and 

 thus all hands were kept eagerly at work to fillup(?iaf 

 vacant space in the center of the brood-chamber. 

 The result was piles of section honey, and no dis- 

 position to swarm. The whole thing looked so 

 reasonable that I decided to try the plan, no matter 

 how much labor it took. Consequently I bought a 

 large sheet of perforated zinc, made the necessary 

 hives, and closely followed the modus operandi. As 

 very little honey was coming in, I was in shape to 

 test the idea about the drawing-out of the fdn. in 

 the sections; and the first thing that cooled my 

 ardor was, that the bees did not touch the fdn., only 

 to eat it up, till considerable honey came in from 

 the fields. In fact, they would not touch the fdn. to 

 draw it out till they got honey enough to build bits 

 of comb here and there. But this part I almost ex- 

 pected, as I had always failed to get bees to work 

 fdn., unless they were getting honey quite freely 

 from some source. 



When one week had passed I went to the hives to 

 change the brood, according to Mr. Jones's direc- 

 tion. Imagine my surprise to find nearly capped 

 queen-cells on the first frame I lifted at the rear of 

 the sections; for one of the most valuable things to 

 me about the whole matter was, that the bees would 

 not swarm when worked on this plan. Howeven 

 little daunted I carefully cut alt queen-cells off and 

 changed the brood as given, in all except one which 

 I left as an experiment. This one swarmed when 

 the first queen-cells were sealed, as all good swarms 

 do. The next week all the others swarmed, all of 

 which were allowed their own way, except one which 

 I was determined should stay till I saw what became 

 of the experiment. 



At the end of the third week there came a little 

 honey, enough so the fdn. in the sections was drawn 

 out about V2 inch on each side; and I hoped bj' the 

 4th week to find them filled with honey. When next 

 I opened the hive I was quite indignant when I 

 found every section filled nearly solid with pollen; 

 and as the bees kept swarming, I gave the whole 

 thing up in disgust. 



Now, in all sincerity I ask friend Jones to come 

 forward and tell us in these pages how it is that he 

 succeeds with the plan, and what part of it I left out 

 (if any), which turned his success into my utter 

 failure. One other thing: Wherever I have used 

 the perforated zinc so as to separate the brood, that 

 brood excluded frem the queen was sure to have 

 queen-cells formed upon it, thus either causing a 

 supersedure of the queen or a swarm, both of which 

 were a positive disadvantage when a good queen 



was in the hive. Again, if no brood was placed in 

 the upper story, the bees would swarm from extract- 

 ing hives, the same as from those worked for sec- 

 tion hone j'; hence the zinc was of more disadvan- 

 tage than the allowing of the queen the privilege of 

 the whole hive. 



From all of the above, the perforated zinb has not 

 been a success with mo. Will those who have made 

 it a success tell us of the fact, and how they ihanag- 

 ed to do away with the above difficulties? 



G. M. DOOLITTLE^ 



P. S. — Since writing the above I have read Mr. 

 Benton's article, " Queens Across the Atlantic by 

 Mail," in Dec. Gleanings, and notice that he says, 

 in speaking of his cages, "of which Mr. Doolittle's 

 cage is nothing more nor less than a copy." Gently, 

 friend B. I never saw more than one number of the 

 Britisli Bee Journal in my life, and that before you 

 went to the Old World; neither did I know that j'ou 

 were trying to mail queens across the Atlantic, till I 

 saw a notice of it in King's Mayazinc, after I had 

 mailed the one to Scotland. I sent the queen to Mr. 

 Cameron at his request, and in a cage so made and 

 provisioned as my own judgment taught me would 

 be most likelj' to succeed; hence I copied nothing 

 from any one. G. M. D. 



Borodino, N. Y., Dec. 7, 1883. 



Friend D., we should be sorry to have any 

 thing come up that looked the least bit like 

 uncharitableness between two such public 

 benefactors as you and our friend D. A. 

 Jones, and doubtless others can give their 

 experience with perforated zinc so as to 

 throw light on the matter.— As I understood 

 it, friend Benton only meant to say you had 

 uoiconsciotisJy copied his cage. 



SENDING QUEENS B^ MAIL ACROSS 

 THE OCEAN. 



ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT MATTERS NOW BEFORE 

 THE BEE KEEPERS OF AMERICA. 



f[f|EAR FRIENDS, in the outset of this 

 MM article I have got to make a confes- 

 sion, and a very humiliating one too. 

 In moving from our old office into the new 

 one, I ran across the letter below, from our 

 friend Frank Renton. It was evidently 

 misplaced as soon as it was taken from the 

 mail, for I have no recollection of having 

 seen any thing of the sort, and the clerks do 

 our work so systematictdly that 1 am com- 

 pelled to think I must have had the article 

 in my hands, and mislaid it. I am almost 

 ashamed to ask friend Benton to overlook 

 my carelessness, and 1 think I shall feel bet- 

 ter after placing to his credit the sum of 

 S2o.CU as a small expression of my regret. 

 The article must have reached us some time 

 in September. Of course, nothing can be 

 done about it now, until warm weather ; 

 but I think it important that the facts there- 

 in laid down should be before the friends as 

 soon as possible. 



WHO WANTS TO GAIN A TRIUMPH, AND AN IMPORTED 

 QUEEN OF ANY RACE? 



First Offer. 

 The undersigned will send a choice imported Car- 

 niolan queen, or a choice imported Italian queen, to 

 Mr. I. K. Good, Mr. Paul L. Viallon, or "any other 

 man "-yes, the lady bee-friends are also included, 

 who will send from America to the address given 



